Kensville Challenge

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Mithun Perera - 0.75 point e/w @ 66-1 (General)

Gaganjeet Bhullar - 1 point win @ 9-1 (Skybet)

A difficult opener to start a difficult season on an incredibly difficult Tour, but hey ho, it all worked out well in the end in 2012 and here's hoping the same for the next few months.

When looking down the list of players it is hard to fathom why someone like Rhys Davies, who destroyed Louis Oosthuizen in the final round at Morocco and was 2 feet away from defending, can be in this lowly grade. He must surely make his way back to the top tier but will be very short each week and, as seen last season, there is plenty of untapped talent from all areas of the world and certainly enough to avoid taking sub 20-1 for a player that hasn't won for two years. At least in January.

I made a short list of five players this week but a couple are not running, whilst obvious pick Gaganjeet Bhullar could be seen as simply too short to be getting involved with, but that is short-sighted.

Bhullar is easily the most likely winner here, not only having shown up well in co-sanctioned events but a winner of four events in 2011, as well as finishing 5th on the outright Asian OOM this season in a far stronger field. Multiple winner last season and improving, he looks a very solid favourite especially as he won this event as one of those in 2011 when a less complete player. He is easily preferred to joint favourite Shiv Kapur, who well may be the instigator of the IPL, but never ever seems to win on Tour and has had far more chances to do so than his market rival.

The only other bet this week is Mithun Perera, a Sri Lankan from a golfing family who is also improving fast. At 26, Perera is now finding his feet with a win in 2011 and two last season, including the Standard Charter Open where he had both Bhullar and Shamim Khan (three time winner in 2012 and Indian OOM winner ) back in 5th after a second round 63 propelled him into contention. In November he won the TATA event with Khan again behind him eventually finishing 4th on the Tour rankings. Top-30 last season around here, he will feel comfortable enough with surroundings and should certainly be shorter than his current 66-1, a price that doesn't take into account his 'home' form.